A Funny Thing Happened in Preparing for Leadership Institute

So last week I was AWOL from the blog because I was at our Lions Leadership Institute. This is an intensive 3 day leadership training retreat for Lions Club members in New York state. I was a participant in this retreat in 2003, and for the past 4 years have been on the coordinating staff, holding the position of Chair this year and last.

This year we had 17 participants, 4 mentors, 5 faculty members, 2 staff members and an additional 7 guests at the closing banquet. Coordinating this event means my assistant and I publicized it, recruited participants, processed applications and payments, made hotel arrangements, planned the meals, recruited faculty, built the schedule, purchased and prepared all the materials AND hosted a hospitality room. Oh, and we were present for every workshop and I was master of ceremonies for the banquet.

But that's the "work" part of this - the fun part is coming up with the annual theme and all the little things to go with that. Last year it was a Lion Safari, and this year we went on a Trip Around the World.

So the crafty side of me decided that buying things for props just was not good enough - last year I made Lazy Girl Wonder Wallets in safari fabric for all my faculty (instead of framed certificates) and carried around a Runaround Bag with the same fabric. This year I decided to make them Studio Kat AeroPacs.

My quest for the perfect fabric began last November, as we came up with the theme on our way home from last year's Institute. Map fabrics were usually pirate themed, and I was just having a hard time finding the right fabric...

Until February - when a trip to JoAnn fabrics showed me the debut of new fabric lines by M'Liss Rae Hawley - including a great travel fabric line.

So I bought a little. I kept forgetting to bring the pattern with me -nor did I know exactly how many I needed to make - so next time I was in the store I hedged my bets and bought a little more. And the next time I was in the store, knowing this was a JoAnn's exclusive fabric and might also be time limited - I hedged AGAIN and bought a little more, each time buying a bit of one of the other fabrics in the line. This happened more than a few times.

By the time I sat down to start making the AeroPacs, I realized I had WAAAYYY more fabric than I needed.

What's a girl/quilter to do with too much fabric for an intended project???

Expand the scope -that's what.

And that's exactly what I will tell you about - tomorrow - when I can load in the photos to go with the rest of the story.